Fresh Tobacco and Cigarette News Online

Sep. 24, 2013

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) has joined forces
with other public health bodies in backing proposals for smoke free
prisons. The CIEH played a leading role in campaigning for the
introduction of smoke free legislation.

Since 2007, when the smoke free laws came into force, all premises
accommodating juvenile offenders have been required to be smokefree and
smoking has only been permitted in adult prisons by prisoners in their
own cells. Smoking is not permitted in any other parts of the prison
buildings and there is no exemption for prison officers and other staff.

Additionally, the Government has always expected prison governors to
exercise local controls to ensure that any prisoners who do not smoke
will have their own cell, or be placed in a cell with other non-smokers.
This has not always happened.

The CIEH argues that many prison cells are poorly ventilated and heavy
smoking can cause a severe build up of smoke which can affect the health
of both the prisoners and prison officers and other staff who provide
care for them. Some of these will be people who have asthma and other
respiratory illnesses, and women who are pregnant. It is not right for
smokers to smoke in places that damage other people’s health.

Commenting, Ian Gray, CIEH Principal Policy Officer, said: “The proposal
to introduce smoke free requirements through a series of early adopters
of this policy is a sensible way forward and can draw upon the
experience of the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles where smoke free
prisons already operate successfully.”

“I have carried out a survey of the mental health facilities in England
and the difficulties encountered there, especially in high security
units, are in many ways similar to prison environments. All mental
health units have been smoke free for over five years and we know of
some excellent models which can be shared with the prison service to
support their prisoners and staff whilst these necessary changes are
introduced.”

Aug. 13, 2013

FIRST it was a $5 per pack tax rise. Now cancer experts want people to have to apply for a licence to smoke.
"This is terrible,'' said electrician Ryan O'Neill, 29.
The Darwin City tradesman said that it wasn't about cigarettes but about freedom.
"They're getting more controlling every single day,'' he said.
"They want to have us as little robots going along and paying our mortgages.
"We're all adults and we should be able to make our own choice as an adult.''

Professor Roger Magnusson, of the University of Sydney's Law School,
and Professor David Currow, of the Cancer Institute of NSW, say a
smart-card licence would combat teenage smoking.
Retailers would

Lang, who plans to conduct the hearing, declined to speak specifically about DeSalle’s case, but said allegations of this nature could result in an officer being placed on unpaid leave.

More troubling, perhaps, are DeSalle’s past reprimands.

In July 2009, DeSalle was replaced as the handler of Justice, Sandusky’s police dog.

He’d been in charge of Justice for about a year but was reassigned after repeatedly requesting time off at night and weekends, when the police dog is used the most, Lang said.

While reassigning DeSalle, supervisors inventoried his locker and discovered 50 grams of methamphetamine.

The drugs, according to DeSalle’s personnel file, had never been assigned to him.

DeSalle told his supervisors he was using the drugs to train the police dog and intended to notify them about the methamphetamines, but never got around to it.

It’s unknown why DeSalle needed 50 grams of meth to train the dog, rather than just a gram or two.

When the Register reported on DeSalle’s reassignment at the time, then-interim police Chief Charlie Sams had said supervisors were investigating other possible improprieties by DeSalle, though they declined to specify what those were.

According to law enforcement officials, a typical “one-hit” dose of meth is one-fourth of a gram. A gram of meth sells on the street for about $100, making the street value of 50 grams about $5,000.

Three months after that incident, DeSalle received a written reprimand for failing to turn on his cruiser’s video camera during calls. His personnel file noted it was the fourth such incident for him in 2009.

His personnel file also shows he drove recklessly last fall — about 47 mph in a 25 mph zone — while responding to a non-emergency call about a mattress and box spring in the middle of Milan Road.

DeSalle told his supervisors he was concerned someone could have been hurt.

According to Sandusky Municipal Court records, DeSalle has also had a history of money problems with financial, medical and utility companies. A government agency also garnished some of his wages, his personnel file shows.

In regard to DeSalle’s earlier performance, Lang said he doesn’t let an officer’s past cloud his judgment when evaluating an incident now in question.

LEGISLATION to curb smoking by imposing a ban on tobacco displays in
shops came a step closer yesterday after an appeal against the proposals
by one of the world’s biggest tobacco companies was rejected by judges.
Imperial Tobacco went to court to challenge the
provisions of the Tobacco and Primary Medical (Scotland) Act 2010 on the
grounds that the matter was reserved to Westminster and outwith the
legislative scope of Holyrood.
Yesterday at the Court of Appeal in
Edinburgh three judges upheld an earlier appeal that ruled none of the
grounds submitted by Imperial were valid and the legislation should
stand. Imperial could now take the matter to the Supreme Court in
London.
Michael Matheson, the public health minister, welcomed the
decision. “I am delighted that the court has upheld the ruling made in
September 2010 by Lord Bracadale to dismiss Imperial Tobacco Limited’s
legal challenge against the bans on tobacco displays and tobacco sales
from automatic vending machines,” he said.
Vicky Crichton of
Cancer Research UK said: “We welcome this ruling by appeal court judges.
We hope this judgment allows Scotland to move forward with plans to
protect future generations of children by putting tobacco out of sight
and out of mind.”
The legislation, which will ban the open display of cigarettes in
shops and outlaw vending machines, was due to have come into effect in
large retailers last October but was delayed until April 2012 because of
Imperial’s legal challenge.
Three weeks ago the Scottish
Government announced a further delay to “a date to be announced”. The
display ban for small shops is scheduled for 2015.
Campaigners against smoking have said the Act will bolster Scotland’s reputation as a world leader in tobacco control.
But
retailers and the tobacco industry warned that the legislation would
have a severe effect on small shopkeepers who were already reeling from
the recession. Sections 1 and 9 of the Act make it an offence to display
tobacco products or smoking-related products in the course of business,
and to have control of premises on which a vending machine is
available.
In his judgment, Lord Hamilton said the objectives of the provisions were not in doubt.
“The
risk which the smoking of tobacco products is perceived to present is
to health, primarily of the smokers as consumers but also of those
non-smokers who may be exposed to a smoke-filled environment and, by
‘passive smoking’, suffer adverse affection,” he added.
Imperial
maintained that the provisions related to a reserved matter, the
regulation of the sale and supply of goods to consumers, and also
claimed they modified article 6 of the Union with England Act 1707, so
far as it related to freedom of trade, and therefore breached the
Scotland Act 1998

Jun. 26, 2013

Many people smoke water pipes —
known as hookahs — as an alternative to cigarettes because they believe
that it is less dangerous and doesn't have any of the bad side effects
associated with cigarettes. It's a social habit, and many bars are now
adopting them as a draw for crowds in a competitive business.
But a new research study in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention has
shown that hookah smoke may expose users to different toxic chemicals
and could result in different types of cancer than cigarette smoke.
"Water-pipe smoking at 'hookah bars' has become popular with young
people in the United States, and some believe that it is less harmful
than cigarette smoking," said Peyton Jacob III,
Ph.D., a University of California, San Francisco research chemist at
San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center. "We report for the
first time that toxicant exposures from water-pipe and cigarette smoking
differed in pattern, with higher exposure to some toxicants like carbon
monoxide and benzene in water-pipe smokers."
Researchers asked 13 healthy adults (eight men and five women) who
were experienced in smoking hookah and cigarettes to participate in the
experiment. Study participants smoked either four days every day and
then at a later time they were told to smoke hookah for the same time
period. This was done to compare the effects of the different smoking
methods in the same person.
Water pipe smoking exposed participants to half the amount of
nicotine as cigarettes. Researchers also found carbon monoxide levels
that were 2.5 times higher in people who smoked from a water pipe during
a 24-hour period. Carbon monoxide can increase the risk for heart
attack, stroke and sudden death in people with heart or lung diseases.
Metabolites of the cancer causing industrial chemical, benzene, was
detected at far higher levels in the urine of water pipe smokers.
Benzene exposure is known to cause leukemia in people.
"People want to know if it is a lesser health risk if they switch
from cigarettes to smoking a water pipe on a daily basis," said Jacob.
"We found that water-pipe smoking is not a safe alternative to cigarette
smoking, nor is it likely to be an effective harm reduction strategy."

The Minister of Health last week announced plans to expand health warning labels on Canadian cigarette packages, a move meant to discourage young adults from starting to smoke, and to encourage long-time smokers to quit cigarettes. But one interest group is skeptical that the expanded labels will actually lower smoking levels.

“There’s some scientific evidence that suggests it will help, but if you read the commentary that people have written in the papers, they’re addicted, so they’re going to continue to smoke,” said Steve Tennant, vice president of the Canadian Convenience Stores Association (CCSA), whose members credit between 40 and 50 per cent of annual sales to tobacco products, with independent downtown Ottawa stores seeing sales as high as 60 per cent.

Nepean-Carleton MP Pierre Poilievre joined Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq at Tunney’s Pasture Dec. 30 to announce the plan, which includes expanding health warning labels on cigarette packages from 50 per cent to 75 per cent of the cover, and adding real victims’ testimonials about their struggles with smoking-related diseases.

Canadian anti-smoking activist Barb Tarbox, who died of lung cancer in 2003 after a whirlwind tour of the country to show young Canadians what happens if you smoke, will be featured in her dying moments on some of the new labels. Many new labels will be in colour.

The plan will also launch a new anti-smoking campaign on social media sites such as Facebook, and will introduce a nation-wide toll-free quit line.

“We know that having health warning labels on packages is still one of the most effective ways to warn smokers of health hazards. Therefore we will toughen efforts to make them bolder and bigger,” said Aglukkaq.

But Tennant believes these kinds of initiatives do not really make much difference, particularly for long-time smokers. “If you want to buy cigarettes from us, you’re going to buy cigarettes from us,” he said.

Indeed, one Quickie employee in Ottawa South said cigarette sales at his store have actually gone up since convenience stores have had to keep tobacco products hidden from view.

“Whether you can see it or not, you know we sell cigarettes,” Tennant said. “All it does is slow down service, but as for sales it doesn’t really affect them.”

Tennant added that if the Canadian government really wants to tackle smoking in Canada, it needs to focus on a bigger problem: contraband.

“It’s great to govern the legal products, but it’s frustrating to see business eroding around you because of contraband products that don’t have health warning labels, that don’t pay the taxes, that follow none of the guidelines the Feds have put in place,” he said. “What we get frustrated with is that the Ontario government especially and the Feds don’t take action on the amount of contraband flowing into the country, particularly into areas like Ottawa,” which is bookended by contraband hubs in Cornwall and Montreal.

In 2008, contraband cigarette seizures jumped to its highest level ever, hitting nearly 967,000 cartons, compared to only 29,000 cartons in 2001. Much of that contraband circulates around Ontario.

The Canadian Cancer Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation both sent representatives to the conference to offer support to the government’s initiatives.

“This outstanding package of new measures will increase awareness of tobacco’s health effects and will reduce smoking among both youth and adults,” said Daniel Demers, director of national public issues at the Canadian Cancer Society. “The announcement comes just in time for New Year’s and provides a further impetus for the many Canadians who will make a resolution to quit smoking.”

The new health warning labels will appear on cigarette packages “as soon as possible” Aglukkaq said, but she wouldn’t give any sort of time line.